Placemaking with Children and Youth
participato ry practices for planning sustainable communities
New Village Press • New York
Copyright © 2018 New Village Press
All Rights Reserved. Except for brief portions quoted for purposes of review, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, or utilized in any medium now known or hereafter invented without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States by New Village Press bookorders@newvillagepress.net www.newvillagepress.net
New Village Press is a public-benefit, not-for-profit publisher.
Distributed by New York University Press newvillagepress.nyupress.org
Paperback ISBN: 9781613321003
Available also in hardcover and digital formats
Publication Date: September 2018 First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Derr, Victoria (Victoria Leigh), author. | Chawla, Louise, author. | Mintzer, Mara, author.
Title: Placemaking with children and youth : participatory practices for planning sustainable communities / by Victoria Derr, Louise Chawla, and Mara Mintzer.
Description: First edition. | New York : New Village Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018035831 (print) | LCCN 2018039690 (ebook) | ISBN 9781613321027 (ebook trade) | ISBN 1613321023 (ebook trade) | ISBN 9781613320945 (ebook institution) | ISBN 1613320949 (ebook institution) | ISBN 9781613321010 (hardcover) | ISBN 1613321015 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781613321003 (pbk.) | ISBN 1613321007 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: City planning—Environmental aspects. | City planning—Social aspects. | City planning—Citizen participation. | Sustainable development—Citizen participation. | City children. | Urban youth.
Classification: LCC HT166 (ebook) | LCC HT166 .D384 2018 (print) | DDC 307.1/216—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035831
Cover design: Lynne Elizabeth
Interior design and composition: Leigh McLellan
Front cover photo credits: Top: Osa Menor and Lunárquiqos. Bottom (clockwise from top left): Speelwijk, Lynn M. Lickteig, Lynn M. Lickteig, Gabriela Gonzalez and DaVinci Camp Summer Institute.
Back cover photo credits: Top: Lens on Climate Change. Bottom: Growing Up Boulder
We dedicate this book to young people around the world
Derr, Victoria, et al. <i>Placemaking with Children and Youth : Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities</i>, New Village Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/detail.action?docID=5345769. Created from qut on 2019-08-11 00:29:52.
Derr, Victoria, et al. <i>Placemaking with Children and Youth : Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities</i>, New Village Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/detail.action?docID=5345769. Created from qut on 2019-08-11 00:29:52.
Box 5.9 Youth Services Initiative Photovoice Project—Facilitating Photography with Hesitant Youth 84
Box 5.10 Photovoice as a Tool to Promote Environmental Health and Leadership among Farmworker Families in Salinas, California 85
Box 5.11 River of Words—International Art and Poetry Contest 88
Box 5.12 Collaborative Book Writing 88
Box 5.13 I Know the River Loves Me, I Know Salinas Loves Me 89
Box 5.14 Youth Voices for Change 90
Box 5.15 Letter Writing as a Means of Sharing Young People’s Experiences of the City 91
Box 5.16 Using Music Video to Spread the Word: Youth Becoming Flood Resilient Citizen Scientists 92
Box 5.17 Youth FACE IT, Digital Stories 94
Box 5.18 Lens on Climate Change 97
Box 5.19 Participatory Video for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk-Reduction 99
Box 5.20 Learning to Design within a Budget: Picto-Play 103
Box 5.21 Using City as Play to Invite Intergenerational Ideas for a Mobile Home Park 105
Box 5.22 A Personscape Workshop 109
Box 5.23 Shine: Young People Perform for Urban Resilience 111
Box 5.24 Performance Art and Co-Design to Facilitate Expressions of the City 112
Box 5.25 Exploring an Issue through Puppetry 114
Box 6.1 Tips for Successful Interviews 118
Box 6.2 Tips for Interviewing Children 120
Box 6.3 Growing Up in Cities Interviews 124
Box 6.4 Children’s Views about Friendly Places 125
Box 6.5 Puppet Friends 126
Box 6.6 Great Public Places Interview 128
Box 6.7 Interviews to Assess Teen-Friendly Businesses 129
Box 6.8 Providing Support for Expert Interviews 130
Box 6.9 Easy Targets: Participatory Interviews with Undocumented Youth 131
Box 6.10 Discussion Groups that Respond to Conceptual Designs 136
Box 6.11 Youth Creating Disaster Recovery and Resilience Project 141
Box 6.12 Only One Question! 149
Box 6.13 Tips for Question Development 149
Box 6.14 Using Venn Diagrams to Describe a Sense of Connection 150
Box 6.15 Child Friendly Cities Questionnaire for Kindergarten and Fifth Grade 151
Box 6.16 Youth Council Action Groups in Pachuca, Mexico 153
Box 6.17 Nightlife Action Group 154
Box 6.18 Surveys to Assess Elementary School Accessibility 155
Box 6.19 Presenting Questionnaire Results 156
Box 6.20 Visual Preference Survey for Park Design 158
Box 6.21 The Use of Precedents: Parks that Flood 155 Box
Box 7.4 Documenting Children’s Movements about the City 169
Box 7.5 The Walking Laboratory Tour with Young Children 170
Box 7.6 Guided History Walk in Monterey, California 171
Box 7.7 Local Culture Embodied in Urban Design in the Mission District of San Francisco, California 172
Box 7.8 Place-based Learning at Boulder Creek 173
Box 7.9 An Exhibit of Teenagers’ Spatial Stories in Dublin 174 Box 7.10 A Scavenger Hunt Walking Tour
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Box 7.16 Intergenerational Play Maps
Box 7.17 Exploring the Mobility and Accessibility of Everyday Environments for Children with Disabilities in Ontario, Canada
Box 7.18 Putting Kibera on the Map
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Box 8.3
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Box 8.8 Guidelines for Experts Working with Children and Youth
Box 8.9 Sample Questions Adults Might Ask Young People at the End of a Project
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Box 8.11
Figure 1.1: Frameworks for participation span all levels of governance, from international agreements to local initiatives. 8
Figure 2.1: Children on a walking tour in the Netherlands climbed on electrical boxes along their route. 13
Figure 2.2: Play on electric boxes served as inspiration for design along play routes, to designate areas in the neighborhood where children like to play. 13
Figure 2.3: Steps in establishing a program or partnership. 13
Figure 2.4: A series of neighborhood networks put “youth allies” in the center of community organizing for participation. 17
Figure 2.5: Sample Memorandum of Understanding. 18
Figure 2.6: Steps in implementing projects. 19
Figure 2.7: Heart, head, hands model for participation.
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Figure 2.8: Principles for sustaining programs. 26
Figure 2.9: Sample front page of an annual report.
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Figure 3.1 Children’s rights to participation in their communities include freedom to explore and investigate the world around them. When children at Boulder Journey School wrote their own Charter of Children’s Rights, they included the statement that “children have a right to touch everything, but gently”—such as this sheet of ice. 33
Figure 3.2: The 100 languages of children include drawing, painting, and other expressions through the arts.
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Figure 3.3: Ethical principles that should guide participatory programming. 35
Figure 3.4: Children sign their rules for fair and ethical practice with their handprints. 37
Figure 3.5: During a project to redesign a schoolyard for children of all abilities, students took turns navigating the space with different mobility devices, including wheelchairs, walkers, and tapping canes.
Figure 4.1: Historical photos showed that the bandshell was used to host powwows in the 1930s.
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Figure 4.2: A boy dancing in a 1930s pow-wow at the bandshell in Boulder’s Civic Area. 53
Figure 4.3: A treasure map designed for children ages 8–9.
Figure 4.4: Children used the “treasure map” in the classroom as a way to try out spatial locations for their design ideas.
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Figure 4.5: An example of a topographic map that can be used to generate a base model. 55
Figure 4.6: A model with base map derived from a topographic map to show landscape features. 56
Figure 4.7: Detail of the topographic model (Figure 4.6) showing zip line, climbing rock, picnic area, and landscape features. 56
Figure 4.8: A screen shot of the Boulder oral history map, with a link to a woman’s recollection of growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, and a photograph of the Mickey Mouse children’s band parading down Pearl Street.
Figure 4.9: Sample data sheet for recording behavior observations.
Figure 4.10: Compiled behavior map showing all observations, using symbols to denote different types of activities.
Figure 4.11: A behavior map showing average numbers of child visitors to the parks observed.
Figure 4.12: A behavior map showing average numbers of youth visitors to the parks observed.
Figure 4.13: A behavior map showing average numbers of adult visitors to the parks observed.
Figure 5.1: Children can draw pictures to help identify issues in their community. In this drawing, children identified kidnapping (top), fighting (middle). The bottom drawing, showing nature and children playing can be translated as: “This is the Pachuca that children want: a world without discrimination, bullying, or delinquency.”
Figure 5.2: Drawing as a reflection tool for what young people learned through the participatory process. In this drawing the child writes that before the participatory process, she was very shy and did not have very many friends nor feel confident interacting with adults. After the process, she feels more comfortable, interacting with people of different ages and from different places.
Figure 5.3: One student drew the flood, a natural disaster which had affected the city of Boulder two years prior, as a vulnerability. This drawing depicts aerial views of homes surrounded by water, as the child experienced during the storm.
Figure 5.4: This student drew many types of vulnerabilities, including car fumes, loud parties, dark places, and stinging bees.
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Figure 5.5: Favorite childhood places in the past. Given the importance of quilting in Kentucky culture, Annette Cable, the artist who rendered older residents’ memories, assembled her illustrations like brightcolored quilt squares bordering a Portland map.
Figure 5.6: Children painting a group mural that reflects what they care about in the city. This mural was generated as part of a resilience project with primary school students.
Figure 5.7: When young artists painted elements of a child-friendly community, they wanted nature and free movement through city settings, but, above all, they valued friendly places, friendly people, and sharing love with their friends and families. Here they began by placing the word “amor,” love, at the center of a mural.
Figure 5.8: Participatory budgeting in San Juan: Collage of images of magazines and prints, prepared with residents of the community.
Figure 5.9: Participatory budgeting in San Juan: Board prepared with a basic architectural plan, along with cut-outs of urban furniture and play areas. Children glued the cut-outs on the board and added drawing and writing.
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Figure 5.10: One of several renderings that architectural students made, based on children’s collage boards for an area.
Figure 5.11: The nicho box at left reads: “I am a ‘red lion’ because of my red hair. My favorite places to spend time are Valmont Bike Park and the skatepark.” The “Me and Nature” box at right with mirror and animal figurines represents the child amidst the natural world.
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Figure 5.12: Identity drawing with mirror: This boy said that his box showed “that children are important here on earth. You can place important things in your life around you. This reminds you of who you are despite your illness.” 81
Figure 5.13: Photovoice exhibit opening. 84
Figure 5.14: Example of a photo-drawing by Cyrena at Boulder Journey School. This photo annotation read, “Cyrena called the
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art ‘Painting Land’ and added beautiful colors and paintings to the outside.”
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Figure 5.15: This collaborative book shared stories about Mexican children’s adventures to parks, nature, and other places (left). Each child wrote an individual story, such as about a picnic to a park (right). 88
Figure 5.16: Youth generated comics to express their experiences of the city. In this featured annotation, youth describe their fears for biking in the city. 90
Figure 5.17: A letters from children in Mexico City to children in Tepoztlán, sharing their experiences of the city. In this letter, the child says that in her neighborhood, Coyocán, there is much air pollution because of cars, but there are also trees. The child says she would like to change the world, but how? She asks if there are many cars where her pen-friend lives. 91
Figure 5.18: Letter exchange from Tepoztlán child to Mexico City children. In this letter the child from Tepoztlán says she likes to play with her dolls, she has many friends, and she likes to sing a lot. 91
Figure 5.19: The Gadsden Creek context for a music video about development and environmental racism. 92
Figure 5.20: Making a music video requires practice and preparation. In this image, youth stand next to receding flood-waters in their neighborhood as they rehearse the video. 93
Figure 5.21: Storyboard template. 95
Figure 5.22: Youth selected topics to research related to climate change. In this case, youth interviewed farmers and climate scientists as they investgated the links between ranching, water, and climate change in “Snow to Steak.” 97
Figure 5.23: Youth can engage in all aspects of video production, from interviews and film footage to editing.
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Figure 5.24: This “found object” model was made from natural materials scavenged from a school playground. 100
Figure 5.25: This model was constructed by 8- to 9-year-olds. They generated a handdrawn base map and then used recycled
and repurposed materials to build the model of a child-friendly, sustainable neighborhood. The model also shows use of repurposed and creative materials, including toilet paper tubes, recycled cardboard, recycled juice cartons, and lids. 101
Figure 5.26: This model for a teen-friendly park, designed by youth aged 11–13, began with a pre-printed base map, rendered for simplicity. 101
Figure 5.27: This model for a public space design used a pre-printed base map showing streets and building outlines.
Figure 5.28: When youth, aged 11–13, designed a public space, they worked within a budget of 30 dots. Each icon had a scaled number of dots to represent the relative expense.
Figure 5.29: This model, developed by 11to 12-year-old girls, created a “sanitation station” and homeless services in a prominent public space. The youth chose to label their model with numbers and a key.
Figure 5.30: Residents of Ponderosa Mobile Home Park engaged in City as Play in an open space among their homes.
Figure 5.31: Residents shared ideas across generations for their vision of the redeveloped site.
Figure 5.32: Youth as ancient plants and animals and the Sun in a performance of Shine for scientists and the general public at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, in June of 2015.
Figure 5.33: A rendering of rubbish bins designed in collaboration with children to make the street more fun and cared for.
Figure 5.34: Children asked for the landfill bin to have more “teeth” since it is less environmentally-friendly than the other disposal bins.
Figure 5.35: Puppetry can help children speak about awkward subjects.
Figure 6.1: In the Growing Up in Cities program, interviewers asked children to talk about maps, drawings, and activity diaries that they created. At a program site
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in India, a staff member from a local organization interviews a boy about how he uses and experiences his local environment.
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Figure 6.2: By speaking through their puppets, children in the Phila Impilo! project were able to express their experiences in hospitals and other settings for long-term care. 126
Figure 6.3: Two teens review their notes after interviewing a business owner about teenfriendly practices.
Figure 6.4: Three teens work as a team to interview the owner of a local business and videotape the session for a short documentary.
Figure 6.5: A letter from an established adult can help provide legitimacy and facilitate positive youth research.
Figure 6.6: A middle-school focus group discusses ways to change policy so that they can have more free time during lunch. The image illustrates some focus group principles: a group of five students, with a facilitator and recorder in a comfortable setting within the school.
Figure 6.7: In this focus group, youth (ages 10–11) brainstormed various impacts on ocean health and discussed them as a group. Then each student used sticky dots to identify the issue they were interested in learning most about as a way to shape future engagement in a school coastal stewardship program.
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asked children individually about each question and wrote responses on the forms. This survey was used with the fifth graders. 151
Figure 6.13: Pre- and post- project responses to the statement: “The government asks me my opinion about my life or community.” 156
Figure 6.14: Community-specific visual surveys. These images were taken from different parks in the City of Boulder to represent parks that children would know, where they could respond to the play value in each.
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Figure 6.15: Generic visual surveys: These images were assembled from parks in Denmark and Sweden and were used as examples to stimulate discussion about play preferences and design.
Figure 7.1: Kindergarten students in the Cottonwood School of Civics and Science are taking their first trip to Oaks Bottom to tour the refuge. They will come back in early winter to plant native shrubs with 7th/8th graders, in the spring to maintain the plantings, and in later spring to learn about pond ecology and life cycles.
Figure 7.2 Child-led tours can be by bike if young people prefer. In this case, youth in Frankston, Australia, led adult researchers to a special cycle track they had constructed, and they lobbied the City Council to safeguard it.
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Figure 6.8: Sample worksheet for focus group feedback, which included renderings, emotions for circling, and written feedback. 137
Figure 6.9: On “expert day,” experts in landscape architecture, public art, public works, and the mobility needs of the elderly visited a classroom to hear students’ initial proposals to revitalize a commercial corridor near their school and to discuss how their ideas could be realized.
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Figure 6.10: A sunrise-to-sunset timeline that can illustrate the activities of different groups in a village or urban neighborhood. 145
Figure 6.11: “Me and Nature” Venn diagram. 150
Figure 6.12: Two versions of this two-page survey were used to interview children in kindergarten and fifth grade. An adult
Figure 7.3: Images of streets on the walking tour, and children’s drawings overlain.
Figure 7.4: Aboriginal children in Cherbourg, Australia led researchers to favorite places in their community.
Figure 7.5: Young people from Nairobi’s informal settlement, Kibera, visited other communities as a way to gain inspiration for their own. The grassy field in a neighboring community inspired a playing field in their own settlement.
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Figure 7.6: A boy exploring a ditch on the Walking Laboratory tour of a city street. 170
Figure 7.7: A guided walk to explore San Francisco’s Mission District with Latinx youth. 172
Figure 7.8: Youth explored storefronts, fruit markets, restaurants, murals, and signs. 172
Figure 7.9: Youth playing a food-web game, which identifies plants and animals who live at the creek and depend on each other for food, shelter, or space.
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Figure 7.10: Teenagers placing temporary signs around their neighborhood as commentary about how they feel in public space. This sign reads “Smell that fresh air,” jokingly referring to the bad smell from inner city horse stables used to support carriage rides throughout Dublin. 174
Figure 7.11: Teenagers often do not feel welcome in public space. Teenagers in Dublin hung “please loiter” and other signs to challenge a tendency by police to move them along when they gather in groups to socialize.
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Figure 7.12: Photo-framing, showing a boy photographing public-space elements that he likes through a green frame. 175
Figure 7.13: Working in pairs helps participants manage frames, camera, and data sheets. It is often easier to frame the desired image if one participant holds the frame while the other takes the picture. 177
Figure 7.14: Sample data sheet for photoframing. This example was used in transportation planning and asked students to identify aspects of transportation according to the six categories. The pictures could be framed red or green, depending on each person’s experience with that element. The data sheet contained a check mark as well as a space where young people could write why they took each picture. 177
Figure 7.15: When planning a city park, youth were given green and red frames to evaluate the existing physical space. Then they were given yellow-framed papers to draw what they wanted to add to the space. 178
Figure 7.16: A photo-framing collage of open-space images. 178
Figure 7.17: Photogrid. The base map was made by printing a large-scale map and mounting it on foam. String and push pins were used to mark the grid intervals. The large map was used to introduce youth to the method and for them to identify familiar landmarks on the map. When students had
taken all their pictures, it was also used to systematically compile their images. 179
Figure 7.18: Example of a photogrid that is marked digitally and then printed. This map was printed on the reverse side of the instruction sheet and given to each student group. Each group carried the map and instructions and made notes directly on the grid as they walked and took pictures. 179
Figure 7.19: Photogrid note-taking. Having a designated note-taker allows young people to focus on site evaluation and photography. If you do not have enough adults to serve in this role, young people can take turns so that each person has the opportunity to take pictures that reflect their own assessment of the site.
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Figure 7.20: Photogrid assemblage. This largescale base map was used both to introduce the method (Figure 7.17) as well as to compile all student images in a single location. Students annotated their photographs to explain what each picture reflected from their evaluation of the site. The assembled photogrid was then shared at a community event. 181
Figure 7.21: Photogrid annotations made digitally using PowerPoint software. 181
Figure 7.22: This treasure map (see Chapter 4) was annotated with student ideas after a photogrid exercise. 181
Figure 7.23: Young students summarized their findings from a bioblitz by labeling what they found on a base map. Annotations included: “we saw scat,” “we found a lot of bulrush,” “wildlife tunnel,” “we want more willow trees,” “we like how wildlife lives here,” “we don’t like that the fish were dumped here,” “wasp nest the size of a soccer ball!!,” and “a web that was covering the tree.” 182
Figure 7.24: Map of an 8-year-old girl’s home area in Cherbourg, Australia. This map combines partially elevated oblique views of important buildings with an aerial view of the roadway. 187
Figure 7.25: Map of Cherbourg in Queensland, Australia by an 11-year-old girl. Using an aerial view, this map covers the central
streets, buildings and other town elements around the girl’s home.
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Figure 7.26: A route map by a 9-year-old girl that shows her favorite places to go in her town of Dixon, New Mexico. 188
Figure 7.27: In a variation of sound mapping, children in Boulder, Colorado visited a parcel of land slated for development as a city park. Children led each other on blindfolded sensory walks within the site, in order to use their senses of hearing and touch. Many children heard prairie dogs, and, in their imagined playgrounds, drew tunnels that could mimic the prairie dogs’ underground networks.
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Figure 7.28: The coast trail includes views of the wharf (left), commercial buildings (middle), and the bay itself (right). 190
Figure 7.29: A sound map constructed by an 11-year-old.
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Figure 7.30: An example of a mobility map. 192
Figure 7.31: Youth annotated a street map with yellow happy faces and red sad faces to represent their experience of the city in the Growing Up in New York City initiative. 193
Figure 7.32: Detail of first generation play map showing where grandparents played when they were growing up in the Setagaya Ward of Tokyo in the 1930s, when there were still large green fields and safe streets. 194
Figure 7.33: An explorer map generated from Google Maps and GIS that gives young people just enough information to find a place that invites further investigation. This map was drawn by an 11-year-old after his exploration along an urban creek. The typed annotations provide the explorer’s comments. 195
Figure 8.1: This concept drawing integrated many children’s ideas for a park and playground redesign. This drawing was brought back to young people and was showcased at a community open house to represent children’s design intentions.
Figure 8.3: Children writing responses to design possibilities for the public square in Auckland.
Figure 8.4: Multiple generations sketched their favorite nature experiences from childhood and placed them on this Urban to Wilderness continuum.
Figure 8.5: Graphic facilitators draw what people want to see and experience in a place through the Co-Design Method.
Figure 8.6: Habitat inventory sheet that summarizes student findings of campus ecology in relation to local ecology as part of a co-design process.
Figure 8.7: “Fill the Ecological Pie” worksheets for existing and imagined future conditions.
Figure 8.8: Sharing the co-design drawing with classmates.
Figure 8.9: Final result of schoolyard habitat co-design process.
Figure 8.10: A team of students present their proposal for public funding to improve sports facilities. The proposals that go forward are decided by a youth vote.
Figure 8.11: Seniors and students in front of a large street map that shows their ideas for an improved pedestrian experience on a local street corridor.
Figure 8.12: During a final project presentation, a student indicates where his group placed their ideas on a base map of the street they were evaluating.
Figure 8.13: Elementary school students present their ideas for the Civic Area to Boulder City Council.
Figure 8.14: Open house celebration. This park-planning project was celebrated at a school-wide open house, where children and youth shared their ideas for redevelopment of a neighborhood park with park staff, neighborhood residents, families, and the school community.
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Figure 8.2: Children playing in the public square as part of a Child-Friendly Audit. 204
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Figure 8.15: An example of a certificate to acknowledge young people’s contributions. 223
Figure 8.16: Celebration of playground opening. Project funders, city leaders, and project participants were invited to an after-
noon celebration for the opening of a playground that had been part of a participatory design process. Project leaders gave short speeches and the local news interviewed the mayor, project leaders, and children. 223
Figure 8.17: Two years after elementary school students in Boulder, Colorado made suggestions for the redevelopment of the city’s Civic Area—including features for a new pedestrian bridge—students were invited to attend the bridge’s opening. The students were the first participants to cut the ribbon and cross the bridge.
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Figure 8.18: During their evaluation of a city bus line, second graders recommended a bench at the bus stop near their school. A few months later, the Department of Transportation invited them to show up at the bus stop at a specified day and time. Within minutes, a city facilities truck pulled up and workmen unloaded and installed the bench. The bench displays a plaque thanking the children for their input. 223
Figure 8.19: Children experimenting with loose parts in the Landscape Laboratory. 228
Figure 8.20: Children and designers co-created a graffiti art wall in the inner-city neighborhood of Segbroek, the Hague, a case featured in Chapter 11. 229
Figure 8.21: At the Sankt Hansgården afterschool program, children from Lund play with natural and scrap building materials as well as participate in ecological design. 230
Figure 8.22: Children who help construct buildings leave their handprints, as on the blacksmith workshop (top and bottom left detail) and chicken coop (right).
Figure 8.23: Children watering herbs in the community garden that they created for their housing development.
Figure 8.24: Volunteer high school students help pre-schoolers plant their school garden in Puebla, Mexico.
Figure 9.1: This annotated map created for Growing Up Boulder represents ideas that three different groups of young people (ages 8–9, 11–13, and 15–16) generated during a year-long participatory process to
ensure that the redevelopment of the city’s Civic Area would include child-friendly elements. Each master plan element that young people recommended is labeled, and the number of dots represents whether it was requested by one, two, or three of the different age groups.
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Figure 9.2: Annotation showing how young people’s initial images and ideas were integrated into the concept plan for a school grounds. 237
Figure 9.3: In this Map of Good Memories, participants marked places in the city that they associated with happy memories with green stickers, places that needed improvement with orange stickers, and unfamiliar places with pink stickers. Simple counts show how often each category of stickers was associated with each place.
Figure 9.4: A graph visually summarizes data from Table 9.1 and helps people understand the frequency of an idea or recommendation.
Figure 9.5: A pie chart that summarizes data from Table 9.1. Pie charts make data easily understandable through visual means and help people to understand frequencies and relative proportion of ideas.
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Figure 9.6: This word cloud shows coded elements as well as the original ideas and words generated by young people from Table 9.1. Thus the word cloud visually portrays the frequency themes through the size of the fonts but it also retains the initial words, which helps to maintain the authenticity of young people’s ideas. There are a number of free resources to generate word clouds available through the internet.
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Figure 9.7: Data can be presented using a combination of visual images, numbers, and words that combine children’s images with data from Table 9.1. 241
Figure 9.8: In the open space planning examples (Boxes 9.1–9.3), youth expressed an interest in natural views and wanted to reduce conflicts between housing developments and nature experiences on public lands. This is most readily understood through the combination of images and words, and this
pairing of information can be used in any presentation of ideas, from posters to websites or final reports. 244
Figure 9.9: “We want parks for teens, too. . . I am so tired of moms yelling at me!” When teens were evaluating parks in Boulder, Colorado, some commented on how there were no parks for them. This became a recommendation that resonated with many teens. 244
Figure 9.10: A sample poster summarizing young children’s ideas about the value of urban trees and forests. 246
Figure 9.11: A poster that summarizes threats to children’s safety and conditions that promote safety in one of the communities in the Safe Community Program in Mumbai, India. 247
Figure 9.12: This excerpt from Growing Up Boulder’s Great Neighborhoods Report shows the integration of a child’s statement (top), recommendations by different age groups involved (middle), and representative images associated with the recommendations (bottom). With an explanatory caption, it could also be turned into a poster. 247
Figure 9.13: What We Liked—excerpt from the Growing Up Boulder 15-minute Neighborhood report generated by Casey Middle School youth. 248
Figure 9.14: What We Didn’t Like—excerpt from the Growing Up Boulder 15-minute Neighborhood report generated by Casey Middle School Youth. 248
Figure 9.15: A child-generated report developed by 10- to 11-year-olds. 249
Figure 9.16: Excerpt from a newsletter written by youth about their participation in a planning project. 250
Figure 9.17: #Our Changing Climate’s “see, snap, share” interactive interface. 252
Figure 10.1: School ground in London, Ontario, Canada, before participatory design and redevelopment.
about an evaluation question. They place X marks or sticky dots along the 0–10 axis to vote.
Figure 11.1: Urban heat image. Light areas show areas of higher urban heat; darker areas show lower temperatures associated with vegetation.
Figure 11.2: Urban heat image. Youth demonstrated the contrast between body temperature (dark areas) and the heat of concrete (light areas).
Figure 11.3: Students developed base maps and inventories of existing conditions as a way to learn about and evaluate the existing school grounds.
Figure 11.4: The base map provided just enough outline of buildings and landscape features for students to add in their own observations.
Figure 11.5: Sample behavior mapping exercise: the data sheet was used to record date and time of day, as well as play activities by gender, grade, and location on the map.
Figure 11.6: Sample behavior map: students recorded their observation codes onto the base map based on observations recorded on the data sheet (Figure 11.5).
Figure 11.7: Final plan as drawn by the project facilitators.
Figure 11.8: Rendering to show anticipated playground design.
Figure 11.9: The children create collages that reflect their personal strengths.
Figure 11.10: Tree of Life mural.
Figure 11.11: A sample puppet friend.
Figure 11.12: Creating the composite fabric painting about hospital experiences and beneficial services and facilities.
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Figure 10.2: The same school ground after it was turned into an area for nature play. 263
Figure 10.3: A sample template for the H Method. Young people place sticky notes on different sections of the H to express their thoughts
Figure 11.13: Kindergarten children drew pictures of favorite and disliked places in their town prior to interviews about these places.
Figure 11.14: Indicators of child friendliness were developed to guide children’s workshops and recommendations for the new neighborhood design.
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Figure 11.15: Children and project facilitators discuss the site on a guided tour. 295
Figure 11.16: On a transect walk, children demonstrate how they scale a wall to access the local dumpyard for play. 298
Figure 11.17: Children mapped safe and unsafe spaces in their communities. 299
Figure 11.18: Photographs from transect walks and mapping activities were combined to show spatial locations of safe and unsafe spaces in the neighborhoods. 300
Figure 11.19: Primary school students visited a model housing development as a way to learn about features of neighborhood design. 304
Figure 11.20: Model neighborhoods were developed using repurposed and recycled materials, including juice containers, straws, and cardboard boxes.
Figure 11.29: Tilburg Stokhasselt: Electric boxes were used by children during the guided tours as navigational and play objects (See Chapter 2). These were then painted to purposefully indicate play routes and alert motorists to children’s presence.
Figure 11.30: Tilburg Stokhasselt: Colorful play routes designate safe walking routes for children, such as these bright orange metal tunnels.
Figure 11.31: “Play Carpet 1”: a running track to enliven and add color to dense housing with few play spaces.
Figure 11.32: The running track (Figure 11.31) was inspired by a walking tour in which children ran through narrow corridors.
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Figure 11.21: Secondary students visited the university design studio to provide feedback and suggest revisions to master plans and design concepts. 306
Figure 11.22: One of the university design teams conceptualized a design that would facilitate play spaces that promoted safety, exploration, nature, and privacy. 306
Figure 11.23: Guided tours help identify questions such as “where can children safely cross the street?” and “how do children use urban amenities for play?” 310
Figure 11.24: Five navigational elements children identified within their neighborhoods (based on Kevin Lynch’s The Image of the City). 311
Figure 11.25: Children annotated maps to show places they play, routes, and landmarks. 312
Figure 11.26: In workshops, children and families generated new ideas for areas by drawing their ideas and adding them to neighborhood maps.
Figure 11.27: Children and families voted on a series of proposed routes and design concepts.
Figure 11.28: Tilburg Stokhasselt: Flags and playmarks indicate direction along children’s walking route in a neighborhood with very few discernable landmarks otherwise.
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Figure 11.33: Zwijndrecht Vogelbuurt: One of the balance zones along an edge of the neighborhood.
Figure 11.34: The children evaluate La Perla on their photographic scavenger hunt.
Figure 11.35: Children hung their scavenger hunt photographs at the start of the design workshop.
Figure 11.36: The stairway that doubled as a section of an amphitheater.
Figure 11.37: Measuring the foundation for Luigi’s Stair.
Figure 11.38: Luigi’s Stair, completed.
Figure 11.39: Club Vista Mar before construction.
Figure 11.40: Club Vista Mar during construction.
Figure 11.41: The finished clubhouse.
Figure 11.42: The design added opportunities for active play and climbing.
Figure 11.43: Children drew the insects they observed on their school grounds, as in this praying mantis. Their enthusiasm for learning about these insects became the inspiration for further exploration into city parks.
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Figure 11.44: Young children learned a bug song prior to exploring insect habitat. 321
Figure 11.45: To develop the bug care book, children developed storylines and illustrated the book with a combination of pictures and drawings.
Figure 11.46: In the co-design process, Junior Rangers shared their visions of an ideal day in open space.
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Figure 11.47: As a result of the co-design process, Junior Rangers also collectively discussed how open space could be redesigned to accommodate different types of user experiences. 322
Figure 11.48: Junior Rangers developed recommendations through a focus group discussion. (See Chapter 6). 322
Figure 11.49: To prioritize recommendations during the focus group, Junior Rangers were each given three sticky dots to vote for their top three choices.
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Figure 11.50: Many visitors to the Family Day wanted to see wildlife habitat protected and enhanced.
Figure 12.1: Children developed models for an inclusive environment of participation for a public space project along Boulder Creek, with tree houses for viewing nature and where everyone would feel welcome.
Figure 12.2: Children’s playfulness. On a neighborhood walk, this boy holds his nose in a playful gesture next to the dumpster while using the photoframing method (Chapter 7).
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Figure 12.3: Children’s playfulness. Later on this same walk, children took a break from evaluating the city to try out new play equipment they encountered along the way. 332
Figure 12.4: The Growing Up in Cities project was like a dandelion head; its goal was to blow seeds of participation all over the world.
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forms
Form 3.6: Sample text for a parental consent form. The boxes to the left of the consent form are for explanatory purposes only and would not be included in the consent form. The sample text is designed to be modified based on the specific context of your project. 47
Form 3.7: Sample text for child assent form. The boxes to the left of the con-sent form are for explanatory purposes only and would not be included in the consent form. The sample text is designed to be modified based on the specific context of your project. 48
Form 6.1: Sample community interview template 121
Form 6.2: Sample activity diary template 143
Form 9.1: Sample artifact entry log 254
Form 9.2: Sample project summary log 255
tables
Table 2.1: Potential Sources and Expenses for Program Administration 18
Table 2.2: Sample Stakeholder Analysis 20
Table 6.1: UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative and UNESCO’s Growing Up in Cities program have both developed frameworks for young people to evaluate their cities, from their own perspectives. This table combines frameworks for evaluation used in both contexts. 147
Table 7.1: Sample Data Sheet for PhotoFraming. This example from open space planning shows image numbers and notes that Junior Rangers recorded during a photo-framing activity. 177
list of forms and tables
Form 10.1: Sample partner reflection sheet 260
Form 10.2: Sample volunteer reflection sheet 260
Form 10.3: Sample pre-project questionnaire
Form 10.4: Sample post-project questionnaire 267
Table 9.1: An overview of the three steps involved in coding and sorting sets of qualitative data. 239
Table 10.1: The K-W-L Method of reflecting on a single activity. Examples from student responses are from a lesson about the natural history of a park that would be redesigned. 265
Table 10.2. Aligning Outcome and Evaluation Measures 273
Table 11.1: Summary of Case Studies 278
Derr, Victoria, et al. <i>Placemaking with Children and Youth : Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities</i>, New Village Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/detail.action?docID=5345769. Created from qut on 2019-08-11 00:29:52.
Writing a book requires the expertise and ideas of many people. Writing a book on participatory practices with young people amplifies this scope enormously. This book draws on more than 40 years of collective practice, to foster a society where all people are valued, included, and listened to. From the initial values and lessons drawn from the early work of Kevin Lynch and Roger Hart to the contemporary practices of people around the globe, many inspiring and committed individuals have made this work possible. We gratefully acknowledge the inspiration that this early work continues to provide. We have been fortunate to draw on people who revived the Growing Up in Cities project of Kevin Lynch and who have long personal histories of work to improve the quality of cities for children: in particular, David Driskell, Karen Malone, Jill Kruger, Robin Moore, and Nilda Cosco have contributed case material, reflections, and images to this book.
When the principles of Growing Up in Cities came to Boulder, Colorado, many other hands began to influence the work included in this book. Willem van Vliet, founder and former director of the Children, Youth and Environments Center at the University of Colorado is foremost among them. When Willem van Vliet and David Driskell converged in Boulder, they conceived the Growing Up Boulder program, which was launched in 2009 and which has involved all three authors of this book. Without their vision and early leadership, this book would not be possible.
The list of partners and supporters in Growing Up Boulder’s work is very long and grows with every project. Former Colorado State Senator Dorothy Rupert believed in Growing Up
acknowledgments
Boulder from the beginning and helped secure financial support for it. Within the City of Boulder, some who have made this work possible include David Driskell, Tracy Winfree, Jeff Dillon, Kathleen Bracke, Jane Brautigam, Natalie Stiffler, Jean Sanson, David Kemp, Anna Nord, Marnie Ratzel, Caitlin Zacharias, Sam Assefa, Jean Gatza, Lesli Ellis, Jennifer Korbelik, Deryn Wagner, Halice Ruppi, Mark Gershman, Jeff Haley, Tina Briggs, Doug Godfrey, Nick DiFrank, Alex Zinga, Alexis Moreno, and Allison Bayley. Within the schools, our steadfast partners have included Deidre Pilch, Leslie Arnold, Kiffany Lychock, Sam Messier, John McCluskey, Peter Hegelbach, Jennifer Douglas Larsson, Lester Lurie, Jacqueline Esler, Cathy Hill, Tamar van Vliet, Lisa O’Brien, Cheryl Spears, Kate Villarreal, Alysia Hayas, Vicki Oleson, Lauren Weatherby, Ellen Hall, and Jasmine Bailon. At the University of Colorado, Boulder, we thank Brian Muller, Nate Jones, Alea Akins, and the Outreach and Engagement team. Also, Lynn Lickteig and Stephen Cardinale have brought
many of Growing Up Boulder’s projects to life through their skilled and artful photography. Many students and volunteers have contributed directly to the projects featured in this work, including Katherine Buckley, Kate Armbruster, Pier Luigi Forte, Ilaria Fiorini, Flaminia Martufi, Nathalie Doyle, Gianni Franchesci, Erin Hauer, Maggie Fryke, Anna Reynoso, Nathan Brien, Ildikó Kovács, Alessandro Rigolon, Simge Yilmaz, Erica Fine, Corey Lunden, Jake Accola, Emily Tarantini, Steve Sommer, Morgan Huber, Alyssa Rivas, JoAnna Mendoza, Sarah Bartosh, Aria Dellepiane, Erika Chavarria, Jason Green, Will Oberlander, Hannah Sullivan, Jackie Cameron, Claire Derr, Darcy Varney Kitching, Danica Powell, Ann Moss, Andrea Rossi, Aileen Carrigan, and Lori Carlucci.
Through our work promoting children’s participation around the world, we have found many kindred spirits, whose work and ideas also are featured in this book: Giovanni Allegretti and Marco Meloni, Jorge Raedó Álvarez of Osa Menor and Fabiola Uribe of Lunárquiqos, Jackie Bourke and Dorothy Smith, Sudeshna Chatterjee, Yolanda Corona Caraveo and Tuline Gülgönen, Corrie Colvin and Kelly Keena, Illène Pevec, Omayra Rivera Crespo and her team at Taller Creando Sin Encargos, Patsy Eubanks Owens, Stanley King and Susan Chung, Matt Kaplan, Isami Kinoshita, Merrie Koester, Angela Kreutz, Janet Loebach, Beth Osnes, James Rojas, Marjan Verboeket and Marjan Ketner, Sue Wake, Karen Witten, and Penelope Carroll.
Former GUB intern Emily Tarantini directly contributed to the book through graphic design of many images. Ben Harden helped generate maps for Chapters 4 and 7. Hope Arculin at the Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, Colorado, and Nathalie Andrews at the Portland Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, were instrumental in helping secure images from their archives. The oral history in Chapter 4 was accessed from Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, Colorado, with thanks to Cyns Nelson.
The idea for writing this book began when Victoria (Tori), Louise, and Mara all were working together in Boulder, as part of the Growing Up Boulder program, and when Tori planned to start a new position at California State University Monterey Bay, which would provide the space and time for completing a work of this kind.
Tori thanks Louise, Willem and Mara, for inviting her into the fold; Georgia Lindsay for her friendship and scholarly encouragement; Emily Tarantini for her good humor, can-do attitude, and graphics support; Jordin Simons for her smiles, interest, and helpful suggestions; and Yolanda Corona Caraveo and Tuline Gülgönen, for their friendship and enriching collegiality from Mexico. Tori also thanks the students from California State University Monterey Bay’s environmental studies’ research methods course and the participants at the children’s participation workshop at the National Autonomous University of Mexico for their enthusiasm and thoughtful feedback as we developed this book. And finally, Tori especially thanks Jeff and Eli for their understanding, patience, and encouragement—I write so much better with the fullness of heart that comes from having you in my life.
Louise thanks Roger Hart and Leanne Rivlin for their influence and support ever since she embarked on the study of children’s environments long ago, her doctoral students from whom she has learned so much, and the many dedicated activist academics and child advocates who have made this an inspiring path to follow, including my coauthors on this book. It is also a privilege to be surrounded by the large Growing Up Boulder network of design faculty and students, city staff, local teachers, and community volunteers who are constantly inventing new ways to bring children’s voices into city planning and design. To Gene, my appreciation for his steadfast encouragement as I pursue my fused commitments to children, nature, and cities. With this book completed, I am happy that he and I will have more time to enjoy the nature and city around us together.
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"Yes, I see you understand. I didn't half like to say it— unless you knew . . . Evelyn seems to feel that she must do every single thing, exactly as he would have wished. She reads all the little books and sermons that he liked. I suppose they helped him; but I don't believe they help her. And she has locked up some of her own books, which do help her, because he didn't like them. And she always goes to St. John's—twice every Sunday—never to our Church. And she tries so hard to like his friends better than her own."
Jem understood. "You see less of her now?"
"Yes—"
"How did it come about?"
"I hardly know. There was a difference from the first. Not in herself! Evelyn could not be fickle. But I suppose people may draw back on principle. She told me plainly that it had to be so. She said it was for his sake—to honour his memory. She will not hear a word said about General Villiers that sounds like blame. Not even about the will."
Jem made a sound of inquiry.
"Have you not heard?"
"I have heard nothing. Your father sent six lines, and nobody else wrote."
"I didn't know how much I ought to say. Everything is left to Evelyn for her lifetime; but only so long as she does not marry again. If she marries, she loses the whole. There would be a little annuity of something under two hundred pounds, and that is all. Doesn't it seem odd? As if General Villiers had wanted to keep her from marrying!—And she so
young and so sweet! If he really loved her, would he not want her to be happy?"
"The best of men are not perfect, Jean!"—in muffled undertone.
"No, not perfect—but—Everybody is talking and wondering. And Evelyn will only say that he was right. She says he has provided for her lifetime, because she could never dream of marrying again. My father smiles about that; but I am sure she means it."
"She may—" and a pause.
"If her husband had not been so old! But I can't understand General Villiers making such a will. No really nice man could ask her to marry him, unless he were rich himself. She would have to give up everything."
Jean had been gazing on the ground as she talked. Now she looked up, and something in Jem's face brought a sense of troubled wonder. Had Jean been a few years older, she would not have seemed to see; but girls of sixteen do not always know exactly when to be silent; and Jean, though in general reserved, was outspoken with Jem. After one moment's blank pause, she said involuntarily
"I am sorry! I ought not to have told you!"
"Why ought you not?"
"If you mind so much—"
"As well hear through you as anybody else!" Jem spoke shortly, with a forced smile. Then, noting her grieved look: "My dear Jean, you are too observant. You must learn to shut your eyes more."
"But—"
"There is no need to discuss the question. As for General Villiers, neither you nor I have to sit in judgment on him. He probably had reasons which seemed weighty to himself—"
"But, Jem—"
"Whether or no they are weighty to other people. Well?" With a touch of impatience. "You wish to say something."
"Only about what I said just now. I mean, about nobody being able to propose to Evelyn, unless he were rich. I did not think—"
"You said what was perfectly true. No need to qualify it . . . I don't deny that I once had a passing dream—and possibly it has revived lately. But in any case, it could never have come to anything. Don't you see? Our spheres are altogether different. My life-work is among the poor and needy; and she is trained to luxury."
"You think so ill of Evelyn!"—reproachfully.
"Ill of her!" Jem's face changed and whitened. "She has been to me as a vision of an angel!" he said huskily. "You little know—! . . . Come, we must go on, Jean. And mind— all this is strictly for yourself—not to be alluded to again."
Jean only said, "No."
Jem strode fast by her side, regaining his usual look.
"I must tell you that I have had an offer of an East-End living. Not much pay, but plenty of work. Yes, I shall accept it, certainly."
A week later, Jean had her first letter from Evelyn. The opening page or two told nothing. Then came a glimpse of the real writer. "I want to hear all about yourself, Jean—all you are doing and thinking. I want something fresh—something outside my own life.
"The Dutton world drags on wearisomely, just the same. I am getting slowly petrified. If I were more like him—but I cannot alter my nature, and the things that did him good, do me harm. The same medicines don't cure all men's bodies, you know; and I never can see why it should not be so with our inner selves as well. One man's spiritual meat may be another man's spiritual poison. I can say this to you, because you will understand—you will not misjudge my words. Mr. Kennedy's soothing sermons are only narcotics to me; and too much of narcotics is not good. I want to be roused and braced, not to be put to sleep . . . I have made up my mind to endure patiently for a few months more, and then I shall go abroad. But this is for yourself alone."
BOOK III.
ACTION AND REACTION.
"But it is much that high things are, to know, That deep things are, to feel."
JEAN INGELOW.
CHAPTER I.
A ROUGH DIAMOND.
"O let me be myself! But where, O where, Under this heap of precedent, this mound Of customs, modes and maxims, cumbrance rare, Shall the Myself be found?"
JEAN INGELOW.
"JEAN, make haste! I shall be late! Do call your father—find him, wherever he is. If I miss this train, I shall be late for the boat; and cross at night I will not! Nothing shall induce
me! I would rather sleep in a bathing-machine! If one has to be drowned, one may as well see how it comes about. Find your father, and tell him I must and will get into the train. It will be off directly!"
"He is coming, aunt Marie. He only went to look at the book-stall."
"Absurd! As if he would not have plenty of time, after I am gone. Well, you can help me to take all these packages nearer. One—two—three. Let me see—there were eleven, besides my two trunks."
"He told us to stay here till he came back."
"That is always the way. He likes to put off till the last moment; and I hate not having plenty of time. There! I knew it! The bell! I shall be left behind. Jean, bring what you can."
To see the true British female, untrammelled by etiquette, one only needs to view her in full career along a platform, charging the wrong train. Restraint at such a moment vanishes, and aristocratic repose is nowhere. Sometimes the true British male condescends to show his undisguised self in a like manner; at least, so far as flurry and flying coat-tails are concerned; but more commonly his rôle is the dignified punctuality, which has not five seconds to spare, yet which never expects anything so preposterous as that he should be left behind.
Jean overtook Madame Collier, close to the train.
"Don't get in, aunt. This is not yours."
"Not for Folkestone! You are sure?" Madame Collier released the door-handle with a gasp of relief. Her short skirts were
tucked up, as if for the wading of a Dulveriford marsh; and her poke bonnet was crooked with mental agitation. Jean gently pulled the bonnet straight, and led Madame Collier again to the forsaken heap of packages.
"I almost wish we had arranged to go with you as far as Folkestone."
"What for? Nonsense, Jean? Mere waste of money. I hate travelling, but I know how to manage. I'm not a minikin finikin creature, like Sybella Devereux, afraid to put my nose inside a train without somebody to back me up. That's not my sort!" She certainly did not look minikin or finikin, seated on a small hamper, with her strongly-outlined face and vigorous personality.
"But you don't like going alone."
"Who said I did? Doing a thing doesn't mean liking it, nine times in ten, with people who are worth anything. It only means not being beaten. I don't like going to France at all, if you come to that. People, are not born into the world just to do what they like," declared Madame Collier, mopping her countenance with a handkerchief of large and substantial make. She disdained what she called "those flibbertigibbet squares," patronised by modern ladies. "It's pretty much the other way commonly, if one's got any stuff in one. I hate Paris—great frivolous place—and that's exactly why I have to live there. If I wanted to go, I shouldn't be allowed."
"Is one never allowed to do what one wishes?" asked Jean.
The doctrine was not new to her, but it sounded dismal.
"Well—some people sometimes—perhaps. Soft folks need a lot of bolstering up, and hard ones take a lot of knocking
down. I've had most of the knocking down work. Not much of feather-beds or dainty pillows. And I've needed it, of course, or I shouldn't have had it. People aren't bothered without reason. My corners had to be scraped off, I suppose; and they're not all off yet," added the good lady, showing unusual self-knowledge. "That's why this has come, just when I thought I was settled for life. Nobody ought ever to think that, I do believe; for there's never any knowing what will come next. The Trevelyans haven't much softness about them; and you are a Trevelyan. You won't be tucked up on a feather-bed all your life. There's more to be got out of you than that."
"I hope so!"
"Anyhow, I'd sooner be the one to do things for other people, than be one of the logs that make things for others to do," said Madame Collier. "Till I'm old and ill, I mean. There's the whistle."
"Only for this train."
"And I believe it is mine, after all. Look at the clock. Well— too late now," resignedly. Then, reverting to a former remark, "No, I don't want you all the way down to Folkestone. What's the good? I've no notion of dragging out good-byes. When a leg has to be cut off, the sooner it's done, the better! There's one thing I want to say to you, Jean. About your father—"
"Yes."
"He isn't so young as he was. Only sixty, and that's not old. At least, it needn't be. A man with your father's constitution, who has lived as he has lived, needn't be old at seventy. But he ought to have common-sense, and not expect to do everything the same as he did at thirty. You
needn't fancy things are wrong—only keep watch, and be reasonable for him, if he won't be reasonable for himself."
One of the inevitable changes, which come sooner or later to us all as life rolls on, had come to Jean Trevelyan, after years of a steady jog-trot in one groove.
Madame Collier had received an unexpected call to a new sphere of work. Her husband's only brother, M. Arnaud Collier, died suddenly, leaving a semi-invalid wife and nine children, with small means. The widow was weak and incapable, and the older children were boys, none over sixteen in age. An appeal for help, made to Madame Collier, met with a prompt response.
Why not? She was no longer a necessity at Dulveriford Rectory; her work there might be looked upon as accomplished. Not a doubt could exist as to where lay the greater need. Jean at twenty was fully competent to manage her father's small household: the widow was not competent; and Madame Collier, at fifty-five, was a strong woman still.
Feelings and wishes existed, of course. Madame Collier would be grieved to bid farewell to her home of many years. She hated travelling, as she said to Jean; detested children; and loathed change.
Moreover, Mr. Trevelyan and Jean would suffer at parting; for with all her ruggedness, Madame Collier had been a tried friend to them both. Sincere affection existed on either side, beneath a shell of reserve. What of all this? Nay, what of the fact that the loss of her personal income would entail some measure of straitness upon the Rectory household? The question, as it came before their minds, was not at all what any of them might like or wish, but simply, what was
the right thing to do? If Madame Collier and her money were needed in France, then she had no business at Dulveriford. The stern Trevelyan sense of duty rose in its might, and settled the question without delay.
In one week, Madame Collier had wound up her English affairs, had packed her personal effects, and was on the road.
Mr. Trevelyan and Jean accompanied her to London. Mr. Trevelyan had business in Town, and he counted it a good opportunity to give Jean a little change.
"There it is! There's the bell! Jean, I can't wait any longer. My train will be off, I know. We are on the wrong platform. Tell your father—"
"Here he comes!"
"Stewart, I am losing my train."
Mr. Trevelyan seemed to be chewing the cud of meditation. He surveyed his sister and her regiment of parcels, with a gaze which found utterance in the query—
"Why did you not bring another trunk?"
"They charge so for luggage abroad. You saw what I had before, so there's no need to bother. If my train is off, I declare I will not cross at night. I'm quite determined. If I have to be drowned, I'll be drowned in daylight."
Mr. Trevelyan signed to a porter to come near.
"Folkestone train?" he said.
"Just coming in, sir."
"Bring these packages."
"Well, you are right for once, but I hate putting off till the last moment; it's such a risk. Make the man bring everything. Eleven altogether a roll of shawls, two bandboxes, two hampers, two bags, two brown-paper parcels—"
"Come along!" quoth Mr. Trevelyan.
"I mean to have all these with me. Not in the van."
"Come, Marie."
Madame Collier obeyed, then broke loose, and rushed ahead, peering into one carriage window after another, as the train backed into position.
"Not a smoking carriage. I can't stand smoking! It ought to be put down by Act of Parliament. I declare there's nothing but smoking carriages. Bah!" with ineffable disgust in the twist of her nose and mouth. "No, not there, Stewart! I won't be close behind a smoking carriage. And not too much in front. If there's a collision, people in front are sure to be killed. Not too far behind. If the train should be run into by an express—No, I must have a corner seat, close to a window, going forward."
It was not easy to meet all these requirements, but at length Madame Collier was placed, and the porter disposed of her belongings. Madame Collier counted and recounted, lost and found each packet in succession, fee'd her porter, and woke up to the consciousness of few minutes remaining. A frizzly-haired young woman on the opposite seat was bidding farewell to a frizzly-haired young woman on the platform, their heads filling the open window, while their shrill voices ran fast. Madame Collier, finding herself
thus debarred from her own relatives, proceeded to clear a way with scant ceremony:
"Now, young woman! It's my turn, if you please."
"What an old fogey!" murmured audibly the aggrieved individual outside.
Madame Collier disdained to notice the utterance.
"Things are all right now, I do believe," she said, breathing hard with her exertions. "Mind, Jean—I shall want to hear all about everybody. Don't forget to tell me if any more comes out about that man Barclay. And mind you don't go alone to his cottage. Give my love to Evelyn Villiers, when you see her. I wish she had come home before I left. She always was a favourite of mine, though you mayn't think it. Why, there's Jem!"
Jean and her father turned: and Jem Trevelyan came swiftly up.
"Just in time!" he said. "What a crowd! I was afraid I might miss you all. Well—" and his hand grasped Madame Collier's, "so you really are off?"
"Yes; I'm off!" Madame Collier's rugged features worked, and a tiny pool of water stood outside each eye, like a minute tarn upon a mountain height. "I'm off!" she repeated huskily. "It isn't what I should have chosen—of course. People are not allowed to choose for themselves— commonly! So much the better, perhaps."
"When they are, they often make a mess of it."
"You're right there! But this isn't choosing. It just—has to be!" She was obliged to haul out the big pocket-
handkerchief, since those two little tarns were growing bigger, and threatened to give birth to rivulets. "Leaving Jean, you know—and all! But there! What has to be, has to be. Rose Collier is no more good than an infant. Can't think what business such people have to marry! I've got to go, though—of course."
"Paris is no distance off in these days. You'll soon be running over to see us all again. And we will take care of Jean."
"Yes, do!"
Jean was quiet and rather white. Laying a gloved hand on her aunt's, she was amazed to have it carried to Madame Collier's lips.
"Aunt Marie! Don't!"
"You'll be a good girl, I know, to your father!" jerked out Madame Collier, thrusting away the hand, as if ashamed of her own emotion, while her chest heaved. "I'm sure to have left—something—behind me! Eleven packages—and—But I'm glad to have seen you again, Jem. Oswald was to have been here. Didn't come, of course, just at last. And they said you were—out of Town."
"Till late last night," said Jem, touched by Madame Collier's manful struggles. He had not known before the strength of feeling which underlay her rugged shell. He bent forward, with a glance of apology towards Jean, and murmured something into Madame Collier's ear.
"I can't hear. Say it again. No—really? I am glad! Things do come about queerly. Mind you don't change your mind. Oh, keep off—there's the whistle. Don't get knocked down and killed, whatever you do. I wouldn't have that on my
conscience! Good-bye, Stewart. Good-bye, Jean. Keep off— trains are so dangerous. I am glad, Jem! Bah, what a whiff of tobacco! Good-bye."
The poke bonnet continued to waggle till out of sight.
Jem turned to look at Jean.
"Excuse my whisper," he said. "I'll tell you by-and-by what I said."
"It's all right. I am glad you could say anything to please her."
Jean looked rather forlorn, not disposed to tears, but as if something had gone out of her existence, leaving a gap, and as if she did not know what to do next.
Mr. Trevelyan's "Come along!" was a relief. Nobody ever saw Mr. Trevelyan in doubt as to his next step.
"Where are you staying?" Jem asked, as they moved out of the station.
"Two streets off," Jean told him.
In some rooms, recommended by a friend. Jean herself would have liked the novelty of an hotel; but expense had to be considered: and daily table d'hôte was not in Madame Collier's line. She believed they would stay three more nights. Oswald was to have spent this day with them, and to have taken Jean after lunch to the Academy; but thus far he had failed to appear.
"I don't know how to manage, if he does not turn up," said Mr. Trevelyan. "I shall be engaged all the afternoon."
Jem offered himself promptly. If Oswald came not, he would be entirely at Jean's disposal.
"Thanks! Pity she should waste a whole afternoon indoors," said Mr. Trevelyan, after a moment's weighing of proprieties. "Yes—you are one of us—and a cousin too. I don't see why not."
"It is only carrying out my promise to Madame Collier. What shall we do, Jean? The Academy? No, you would rather keep that for Oswald. What do you say to a trip on the river —up to Richmond by steamboat?"
CHAPTER II.
OLD FATHER THAMES.
"I'm a woman, sir,— I use the woman's figures naturally. . . . So I wish you well, I'm simply sorry for the griefs you've had."
E. B.
BROWNING.
OSWALD had not turned up when they reached the lodgings. A note was there, apologising for his failure, which of course "could not be helped," and promising to appear next day a great relief to Jean. His defection had troubled her sorely, and she was thankful to know—or at least to be assured—that he was not blameable. Jean believed in Oswald as of old, loving him with the warmest love she had at command. No human being had ever yet been dearer to her than Oswald, and nothing else could equal that delight of her heart, a day with Oswald. As of old, she lavished pure gold, to receive brass in exchange.
Still, an afternoon with Jem brought pleasure. She had always looked up to Jem, rested on Jem's judgment, given Jem cousinly affection. There was a placid satisfaction in the certainty that Jem never misunderstood her, which she could not feel in Oswald's companionship.
The two had not met for more than a year, and Jem studied Jean carefully through lunch.
She had altered, even during those months, and much more during the years since General Villiers' death.
Jean had reposeful manners, old for her age. She was tall and slender; and her features had worked their way to regularity of outline. A slight droop in the eyelids gave shade, the month had gained in mobility and sweetness, the paleness was not sallow in kind. Moreover, the eyebrows seemed to have grown darker, the lips were redder, and the hair, for years clipped short, had expanded into a goodly mass of gamboge-brown.
Of course she had not yet come to her full development. Who has, at twenty? Unless it be a mushroom specimen of human nature. But strength and gentleness were there
already, in balanced combination. Jean had not grown like a crooked apple-tree, all to one side.
Simplicity of dress remained, characteristic in kind. Boots and gloves were irreproachable. Superfluous trimmings were non-existent. The severe folds of her skirt gained grace from the figure they clothed, and the neat cap, thrown aside during lunch, was almost boy-like in its plainness; only nothing could look boy-like over that pure womanly face.
It was the face of one to be not only loved, but leant upon. You might be sure, so leaning, that Jean would not give way beneath the strain. Giving way is commonly far more a matter of weak will, than of weak muscle, bodily or mental. Jean might break, but she would not bend. It is the feeble natures that bend. The strong hold out, and rather die than yield.
Jean studied Jem in return; not quite able to make him out. A certain burden pressed upon him, which he failed to hide. The grey eyes were troubled beneath their pleasant sparkle, and a weight on the forehead drew the brows often together. Jean had seen him burdened before, and she always had a theory ready to account for it. True, the weight to-day was something new, since for years past his life had seemed to be full of sunshine, yet she reverted at once to her old explanation. Was it Evelyn again?—Evelyn Villiers, disturbing his peace? Had he somehow heard that after nearly four years abroad, she was returning to Dutton Park?—Nay, that she might already be in London?
"I shall leave you to amuse one another," Mr. Trevelyan said, rising. "Don't expect me till seven. You will dine with us, of course, Jem."
Then he was gone, and they made their way river-wards; Jean with her old sense of repose under Jem's protection, and her old trust that he was sure always to do right. It was a confidence soon to have a rude shake.
"I'm perfectly happy, left to myself. There's no need to talk to me."
Jem looked round, smiling. They had secured good sternseats, near the wheel, and apart from other people.
"Some occult meaning underlies that assertion. I don't fathom it."
"I only thought you might feel bound to amuse me; and I am not one of the people who need to be amused."
"Profoundly true. But how if I want to hear Dulveriford news?"
"Evelyn!" flashed anew through Jean's mind.
"I don't know where to begin; and there is not much going on. Of course you have heard that Canon Meyers is going away. He will be a great loss, dear old man. Nobody is appointed yet in his stead . . . Mr. Kennedy has a curate— that is something new. A very hardworking young man, I believe—and rather given to arguments. Miss Devereux thinks him delightful . . . She talks of spending part of Cyril's vacation at the Brow this autumn, and at Christmas, he will have done with Oxford. Isn't it odd how she has kept him away from home? He and I have not once met for fifteen months."
"I am told that he is a good-looking young fellow."
"Mrs. Kennedy calls him a 'lovely youth!'"
"H'm!"
"And Miss Devereux says he has such a sweetly aristocratic air."
"And Jean—?"
"Oh, I like him, of course; we always have been friends. He is too much 'one of England's curled darlings' for my taste; but when you have a friend, you don't give him up for his looks. I wish he were not quite so dainty. But I'm speaking of more than a year ago. He may have changed any amount."
Jem seemed to be thinking of something else.
"So you have not yet heard who is to be the Canon's successor! What would you say if it were I?"
Jean laughed as at a joke.
"But seriously! I have had the offer."
"You don't think of accepting it!"
"Yes." Jem was smiling.
Jean showed no pleasure. She asked abruptly, "Do you mean it?"
"Why not? The one living is nearly seven hundred a year; the other is not two hundred. What do you think?"
"It doesn't matter what people think . . . I would rather not give any opinion. One person can't judge for another . . . It is not my business;" as he waited still. "Everybody will like to have you at Dutton—of course; How soon do we get to Richmond?"
"Suppose you answer my question first?"
"I can't. There's nothing to answer. What a horrible jangle!" as two or three discordant instruments struck up on deck. "No use to talk against such a noise."
Jem acquiesced, and they sank into silence; Jean turning away a troubled face. Jem had suddenly dropped from a high pedestal in her imagination; and how high the pedestal had been, whereon he was wont to sit, Jean had never known till now. She was vexed at the strength of her own pain and displeasure. That Jem should so fail—! Anybody else except Jem!
Oswald always pleased himself by following the easy path of what he liked; and nobody ever expected Oswald to do anything else; but Jem—why, she had always looked upon him as the living embodiment of self-denial; and here was he, just like any commonplace man, snatching at personal advantage the moment it offered itself, forsaking the post of toil and difficulty, for which he had seemed especially fitted, and for which he had professed an ardent love. Jean wrung her gloved fingers together, and could almost have wept in girlish disappointment at this dethroning of her hero—if she had been alone.
No more words were spoken till they reached Richmond. Jem was in no haste to justify himself. Jean mutely followed his lead off the steamer, across the landing-place, and through the town to the Park gates. Then Jem paused to ask—Should they lounge under the trees, or walk to the White Lodge?
"Walk, please!" Jean answered promptly.
Jem smiled to himself, reading her wish to evade further questions. He did not mean to let her off; but there was no
